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Maria vs Marymargaret

American parents have registered 570,389 Marias since 1880, against 994 Marymargarets. Maria is still ahead, with 2,893 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maria against Marymargaret, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maria Marymargaret

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Maria has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2015, when Maria had 2,839 and Marymargaret had 20.

Side by side

  Maria Marymargaret
Total US births 570,389994
Most in one year 10,19737
Babies in 2025 2,89316
Estimated living today 466,000920
Median age today 4529
Peak year 19641995
Best rank 41st girls3,087th girls
Rank in 2025 87th6,838th
First recorded 18801915
Girls / boys 566,111 / 4,278994 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Marias alive today are over 45; half the Marymargarets are over 29. That is 16 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Maria and Marymargaret.